Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie_UPS
The blind leading the blind here: Its not a mandate, but its a lot easier to keep things within state lines. I think this has to do with funding and things like State-specific grants/sponsorship (i.e if UW had a large grant for STEM programs but can only be used in WI... the grant might be too big for a team to win, but a prime candidate for whatever FIRST in WI group is running districts. If we were the WI-IL districts, then FIRST in WIIL wouldn't be eligible).
I'm guessing the biggest problem is [see above]. For a Chicago team that is practically in Indiana, lets say they joined Indiana Districts... if Indiana FIRST received Indiana Grant Money that can only be used in Indiana, how does Indiana FIRST make sure they aren't violating that grant and using the money to benefit Chicago-Border Team?
I could be totally wrong here, but this is what I have gathered is the biggest problem for multi-state districts.
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I have no real involvement with how NEFIRST (or PNW, or MAR, or CHS) acquires funding, but this is the first time I've heard state-based grants as a reason to avoid districts across state lines. I'm not saying this isn't a real problem, I'd just like to hear from the folks in New England, PNW, MAR, and the Chesapeake Region who have faced roadblocks.
The small districts really don't seem ideal to me... smaller regions are more likely to have multiple weeks where their field isn't in use (same field cost split across fewer teams / smaller region), don't have as much variety of team lists at their events to introduce more changing dynamics throughout the season, have much bigger 'jumps' to make when the region grows (or shrinks) and an event needs to be added or removed, and most significantly (for now, at least) it often forces teams near the borders of the districts to travel further...
this map actually shows very well all the teams that currently travel far because of being close to district borders... note it seems to hurt teams more who are on the regional side of a regional/district border (western SC, northern Ohio, northern Idaho, northern Florida) than the teams on the district side. Also note, some of the worst situations have yet to come, such as if MN and WI are not in the same district, teams in northwestern WI are cut off from MN or if IL and MO are not in the same district, teams in Greater St Louis on the IL side would suddenly have much further to go. Really, it'd be nice to have people with some varied experience in large and small districts to compare...
Allowing teams to opt into or out of districts would certainly be good for minimizing the difficulties of border teams, but as being discussed, that path isn't without its problems.